Brinsley Schwarz were part of the pub rock scene of the 1970s in the UK, hardly the most glamorous of descriptions, conjuring up images of warm beer on warm afternoons in some dive in South London. However, they proved influential (though not until after they had disbanded) and this song, one of their best, has been covered by various artists including Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen.
Clara Schumann (1819-1896) was a prodigious pianist and composer until family life intervened in her mid-thirties. Much of her work was not performed until recently. The title translates as "I stood darkly dreaming".
Australian by birth, Percy Grainger spent the early years of the 20th Century collecting and, in some cases, arranging traditional English Folk songs. Brigg Fair took place on 5 August every year, in Lincolnshire, and was primarily a place for trading horses. Grainger's arrangment was later adapted for orchestra by Frederick Delius.
There aren't that many songs from the Punk and New Wave era that have lasted, possibly because a lot of the bands couldn't play their instruments which is a bit of a barrier to great songwriting. However, the Only Ones managed it with 'Another Girl, Another Planet', helped by such lines as "Space travels in my blood/There ain't nothing I can do about it/Long journeys wear me out/But I know, I can't live without it."
Time we had some swing and a tinkle of jazz courtesy of Count Basie and the band.
What's your mood today? Whatever your answer, you'll probably find it somewhere in Erik Satie's Gnossienne.
Nina Simone was singer, songwriter and arranger across a variety of musical styles. But she was also a leading civil rights activist throughout her career and her 1969 song 'To Be Young, Gifted and Black' (lyrics by Weldon Irving) became one of the anthems of the Civil Rights Movement. However, it was the reggae version of the following year (Young, Gifted and Black') by Jamaican duo Bob & Marcia that was the most commercially successful.
In 1967, when a lot of musicians were, in John Lennon's words, wanting to change the world, The Kinks and songwriter Ray Davies were ploughing a different furrow and singing about a more simple life.